Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma Histologically Mimicking a Plasmacytoma.

Anaplastic (undifferentiated) thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare malignancy which may arise from transformation of a pre-existing differentiated carcinoma. We report the unique case where a lesion of thyroid origin presented with the histological features of mature plasma cells. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the lesion to be an anaplastic thyroid carcinoma arising from papillary thyroid carcinoma. A tumor mimicking a malignancy of a different cellular origin can lead clinicians to incorrect treatment approaches. Careful correlation with clinical details and knowledge of these unique presentations is important for reaching the correct diagnosis

Atypia of Undetermined Significance/Follicular Lesion of Undetermined Significance (AUS/FLUS): Interpretation and Algorithm for Follow-Up

The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytology (TBSRTC) has proven to be an effective and robust thyroid fine needle aspiration (FNA) classification scheme to guide the clinical treatment of patients with thyroid nodules. However, a tendency of increasing diagnosis of atypia of undetermined significance/follicular lesion of undetermined significance (AUS/FLUS) is observed. This is commensurate with the incorporation of new molecular tests for classifying indeterminate thyroid nodules. Moreover, a sizable portion of AUS/FLUS is correlated with follicular variant papillary carcinoma (FVPTC). A suggestion of reclassifying noninvasive FVPTC (NI-FVPTC) or noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features (NIFTP) as a neoplasm rather than a carcinoma would significantly change the risk of malignancy in AUS/FLUS category. We review the diagnostic criterion and subclassifying suggestions of AUS/FLUS, features indicating follicular variant neoplasm in AUS/FLUS category, and commercially available molecular tests for AUS/FLUS subgrouping. We propose a multidisciplinary approach to AUS/FLUS follow-up

Evidence Based Systematic Review of Aphasia Therapy for bilingual individuals

Relatively little is known about the best practices for language therapy in bilingual aphasia. This systematic review examined three crucial questions faced by speech-language pathologists during clinical decision making: outcomes when language therapy is provided in the secondary language (L2), extent of cross-language transfer (CLT) and variables that influence CLT, and outcomes when language therapy is mediated by a language broker. Data from 14 studies (N=45 aphasic individuals) indicate that treatment in L2 leads to positive outcomes (akin to L1 treatment); CLT occurred in about half of the studies, especially when L1 was the language of treatment

Use of Electronic Science Journals in the Undergraduate Curriculum: An Observational Study

Phase 2 of a 2-phase project funded by the NSF- National Science Digital Library Project observed undergraduate and graduate engineering, chemistry, and physics students and faculty while they searched the ScienceDirect e-journals system for scholarly science journal articles for simulated class-related assignments. Think-aloud protocol was used to capture affective and cognitive state information, while online monitoring provided an automatic log of interactions with the system. Pre- and post-search questionnaires and a learning style test provided additional data. Preliminary analysis shows differences in search patterns among undergraduates, graduates, and faculty. All groups used basic search functions the most. Graduate students on average spent more time per session and viewed more pages. Further analysis, including analysis of affective and cognitive reactions is continuing

RNA interference of gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone gene induces arousal in songbirds.

Gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) was originally identified in quail as a hypothalamic neuropeptide inhibitor of pituitary gonadotropin synthesis and release. However, GnIH neuronal fibers do not only terminate in the median eminence to control anterior pituitary function but also extend widely in the brain, suggesting it has multiple roles in the regulation of behavior. To identify the role of GnIH neurons in the regulation of behavior, we investigated the effect of RNA interference (RNAi) of the GnIH gene on the behavior of white-crowned sparrows, a highly social songbird species. Administration of small interfering RNA against GnIH precursor mRNA into the third ventricle of male and female birds reduced resting time, spontaneous production of complex vocalizations, and stimulated brief agonistic vocalizations. GnIH RNAi further enhanced song production of short duration in male birds when they were challenged by playbacks of novel male songs. These behaviors resembled those of breeding birds during territorial defense. The overall results suggest that GnIH gene silencing induces arousal. In addition, the activities of male and female birds were negatively correlated with GnIH mRNA expression in the paraventricular nucleus. Density of GnIH neuronal fibers in the ventral tegmental area was decreased by GnIH RNAi treatment in female birds, and the number of gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons that received close appositions of GnIH neuronal fiber terminals was negatively correlated with the activity of male birds. In summary, GnIH may decrease arousal level resulting in the inhibition of specific motivated behavior such as in reproductive contexts

Cross-modal Association between Auditory and Visuospatial Information in Mandarin Tone Perception in Noise by Native and Non-native Perceivers

Speech perception involves multiple input modalities. Research has indicated that perceivers establish cross-modal associations between auditory and visuospatial events to aid perception. Such intermodal relations can be particularly beneficial for speech development and learning, where infants and non-native perceivers need additional resources to acquire and process new sounds. This study examines how facial articulatory cues and co-speech hand gestures mimicking pitch contours in space affect non-native Mandarin tone perception. Native English as well as Mandarin perceivers identified tones embedded in noise with either congruent or incongruent Auditory-Facial (AF) and Auditory-FacialGestural (AFG) inputs. Native Mandarin results showed the expected ceiling-level performance in the congruent AF and AFG conditions. In the incongruent conditions, while AF identification was primarily auditory-based, AFG identification was partially based on gestures, demonstrating the use of gestures as valid cues in tone identification. The English perceivers’ performance was poor in the congruent AF condition, but improved significantly in AFG. While the incongruent AF identification showed some reliance on facial information, incongruent AFG identification relied more on gestural than auditory-facial information. These results indicate positive effects of facial and especially gestural input on non-native tone perception, suggesting that cross-modal (visuospatial) resources can be recruited to aid auditory perception when phonetic demands are high. The current findings may inform patterns of tone acquisition and development, suggesting how multi-modal speech enhancement principles may be applied to facilitate speech learning

Alcohol Related Violence and Unwanted Sexual Activity on the College Campus

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among alcohol consumption, sexual assault and rape, and nonsexual violence in a college population at a large Northeastern university. A 49-item questionnaire was designed to elicit responses from both victims and perpetrators. Of the 1,084 respondents: 518 were male, 566 were female, the majority were White (91.8%), and in the 18-21 age range. Unwanted sexual activity, rape, and violence were significantly related to alcohol consumption on the college campus studied. These data indicated that alcohol was involved in: a) unwanted sexual activity--both from the victim\u27s perspective (85.7%) and from the perpetrator\u27s perspective (76.0%); b) rape--both from the victim\u27s perspective (69.0%) and from the perpetrator\u27s perspective (100%); and nonsexual violent acts from the same sex (59.5%), and (c) from the opposite sex (58.9%). The findings are consistent with those of previous studies that indicate a persistent trend in the negative consequences of violence linked to alcohol use and abuse among college students

Designing real-time, continuous emotion annotation techniques for 360° VR videos

With the increasing availability of head-mounted displays (HMDs) that show immersive 360° VR content, it is important to understand to what extent these immersive experiences can evoke emotions. Typically to collect emotion ground truth labels, users rate videos through post-experience self-reports that are discrete in nature. However, post-stimuli self-reports are temporally imprecise, especially after watching 360° videos. In this work, we design six continuous emotion annotation techniques for the Oculus Rift HMD aimed at minimizing workload and distraction. Based on a co-design session with six experts, we contribute HaloLight and DotSize, two continuous annotation methods deemed unobtrusive and easy to understand. We discuss the next challenges for evaluating the usability of these techniques, and reliability of continuous annotations

Sodium oxybate therapy provides multidimensional improvement in fibromyalgia: results of an international phase 3 trial

Background: Fibromyalgia is characterised by chronic musculoskeletal pain and multiple symptoms including fatigue, multidimensional function impairment, sleep disturbance and tenderness. Along with pain and fatigue, non-restorative sleep is a core symptom of fibromyalgia. Sodium oxybate (SXB) is thought to reduce non-restorative sleep abnormalities. This study evaluated effects of SXB on fibromyalgia-related pain and other symptoms. Methods: 573 patients with fibromyalgia according to 1990 American College of Rheumatology criteria were enrolled at 108 centres in eight countries. Subjects were randomly assigned to placebo, SXB 4.5 g/night or SXB 6 g/night. The primary efficacy endpoint was the proportion of subjects with ≥30% reduction in pain visual analogue scale from baseline to treatment end. Other efficacy assessments included function, sleep quality, effect of sleep on function, fatigue, tenderness, health-related quality of life and subject's impression of change in overall wellbeing. Results: Significant improvements in pain, sleep and other symptoms associated with fibromyalgia were seen in SXB treated subjects compared with placebo. The proportion of subjects with ≥30% pain reduction was 42.0% for SXB4.5 g/night (p=0.002) and 51.4% for SXB6 g/night (p<0.001) versus 26.8% for placebo. Quality of sleep (Jenkins sleep scale) improved by 20% for SXB4.5 g/night (p≤0.001) and 25% for SXB6 g/night (p≤0.001) versus 0.5% for placebo. Adverse events with an incidence ≥5% and twice placebo were nausea, dizziness, vomiting, insomnia, anxiety, somnolence, fatigue, muscle spasms and peripheral oedema. Conclusion: These results, combined with findings from previous phase 2 and 3 studies, provide supportive evidence that SXB therapy affordsimportant benefits across multiple symptoms in subjects with fibromyalgia